China Shenhua Energy Co., the country's biggest coal miner, has raised 66.6 billion yuan (US$8.9 billion; ¤6.3 billion) in its Shanghai initial public offering, a record for a mainland IPO, according to AP. The 1.8 billion yuan-denominated shares were priced at 36.99 yuan (US$4.92; ¤3.48) each, the top of their indicative range, Shenhua said in a notice issued late Wednesday. The shares constitute 9 percent of Shenhua's capital. The IPO topped China Construction Bank's share offering earlier this week as the largest ever on a mainland Chinese bourse. The Construction Bank, which began trading on Tuesday in Shanghai, raised 58.05 billion yuan (US$7.7 billion; ¤5.6 billion). The world's biggest IPO ever was Industrial & Commercial Bank of China's $21.9 billion offering in October 2006 that sold shares simultaneously in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Shenhua already has shares traded in Hong Kong. The Shanghai IPO is due to begin trading on Oct. 9, one of a slew of planned share offerings by premier state-owned companies that also include oil and gas giant PetroChina Co. and telecoms operator China Mobile. Shenhua's shares also attracted a record sum of subscriptions _ 2.67 trillion yuan (US$355.3 billion;¤252 billion) _ trumping the Construction Bank's record 2.26 trillion yuan in subscriptions. China's yuan-denominated shares are generally off-limits to foreign investors except those buying through so-called qualified foreign institutional investors. But the zeal of domestic investors for shares in top-name companies has helped double the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index since the beginning of the year. Mainland Chinese IPOs have raised a record US$40.5 billion (¤28.7 billion) so far this year, surpassing the US$21.1 billion for all of 2006, according to data provider Thomson Financial. Beijing-based Shenhua owns coal mines, railways, ports and power plants. Most of its mining operations are in northern China's Inner Mongolia. It already has shares traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where Shenhua's shares fell 0.9 percent Thursday to 45.40 Hong Kong dollars (US$5.82;¤4.12). Shenhua Group, the mainland-based parent company of Shenhua Energy, sold 240 million tons of coal in 2006 and projects sales for 2007 at 260-270 million tons. The company reported that its net profit rose 20 percent in the first half of the year over Jan.-June 2006, to 10.3 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion;¤990 million).
